Day 1
Today we gathered excitedly in the school hall with all of our bags before travelling to York on a coach. We had a great time chatting to our friends and spotting the farm in the middle of the motorway!
When we arrived in York, we ate our lunch at the racecourse before going into the city centre to explore what Viking York was like at the Jorvik museum. Afterwards, we learned about archaeology and in particular the archaeology of York. We learned about a 1000 year old fossilised human poo that was found on the side of Jorvik. We also discovered that the vikings living in Jorvik liked to eat oysters. We knew this because they found nearly 750,000 oyster shells.
In the museum we got to ride in a capsule and ride through a replica of what Jorvik looked like over 1000 years ago. There were sounds and smells too. It really smelled, especially in the back garden when the vikings chopped up meat and got rid of their toilet waste!
After this we walked back through York looking at some of the buildings that the vikings left behind and are still visible. We didn’t stop for long though, because it was raining a lot and we wanted to get back to the centre as quickly as we could to avoid getting too wet.
In the evening we had a delicious tea of spaghetti bolognaise and some of us were really brave and tried it for the first time and quite liked it! We then completed some postcards, diaries and drawings before our bedtime story of ‘Oliver and the Seawigs’ (the sequel to our Pugs of the Frozen North book from earlier this year).
We are all looking forward to another exciting day tomorrow where we will get to look around the York Minster and the Railway museum. Not to mention York’s got Talent!
Day 2
After a great sleep, we had a giant breakfast. We had the choice of full breakfast with sausage, bacon, eggs, beans and toast, cereal, yogurt or fruit. It was very nice!
Soon after breakfast, we got onto the bus and went into York for our day of exploring. Firstly we looked at the River Ouse and why the Vikings might have chosen York to settle in. We also saw that the river had once flooded to a depth that would have been above our heads! Next, we walked past Cliffords Tower, the site of an old jail.
We then reached The Shambles and learned the road was used to help design Diagon Ally from the Harry Potter film. It was really narrow and full of brilliant little shops. At the end of the street we turned a corner and saw an amazing tall building. We soon found out that it was York minster.
Inside York Minster we learned about the fire that burned the roof down, we also learned about the kings of York and lots of other amazing facts about how the building has changed over the last 1000 years.
For lunch, we made the most of the sunshine and had a picnic in the castle gardens. Next, we visited the Railway museum and learned how steam engines work and the evolution of the railways in britain. We even found a train that was made in Crewe. It was called ‘The Duchess of Hamilton’.
In the evening we enjoyed some time playing outside, drawing and reading our books with our friends before taking part in or watching York’s Got Talent. We were even joined by special guest, Simon Cowell for the evening. After watching the brilliant range of performances the judges finally decided that Bella achieved 3rd place for her solo singing performance, Taylen achieved 2nd place with his riddles and amazing animal facts and that Emily N was our winner with her singing and drawing performance. Well done to everyone who took part!
We are looking forward to our morning of crafts tomorrow and coming home to see our families and tell them all about our time away.
